How to test one's chess level?

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soheil_hooshdaran
Posts: 3148
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:24 pm

How to test one's chess level?

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:31 pm

Hi.
Suppose one student refers to your club. How do you determine how much s/he knows already?

Thanks in advance

Kevin Thurlow
Posts: 5821
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:28 pm

Re: How to test one's chess level?

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:58 pm

Get an experienced (but not necessarily strong) player to play some games with them. You can then guess a level, then change the opponent. Guess again. Repeat as necessary.

It is not always easy. We had a new player who played great attacking chess and won splendid games... if he got out of the opening with a position where he was not totally lost.

IanCalvert
Posts: 232
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:59 pm

Re: How to test one's chess level?

Post by IanCalvert » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:01 am

Arguably a stochastic view of chess level,would include a separation of quality of position after the opening on say a 7 point scale (+- to -+) and style of player on a four point , Boston matrix like scale . as described by Lars Bo Hansen in his Gambit books on strategy with an incorporation of an averaged opponent factor and even an interaction term.

Maybe an ECF grading like approximation is better! :)

Ian Jamieson
Posts: 203
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:00 pm

Re: How to test one's chess level?

Post by Ian Jamieson » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:39 pm

When I was a junior in Scotland attending a SJCA training event the late Danny Kopec assessed the strength of a group of us by seeing how many tactical puzzles we could correctly solve. There are plenty of books out there which use this approach.

(What one knows about chess is not necessarily the same as how strong someone is. Someone could know a lot but be weak because of e.g. Tactical oversights. Having said that the more someone knows the stronger they are likely to be although that may be because of the amount of work/practice they have put in to accumulate the knowledge. Also there are strong players with gaps in their knowledge e.g GMs who can't mate with bishop and knight, but they are rare.)

Steven DuCharme
Posts: 274
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2014 11:51 pm
Location: West Bend,WI USA

Re: How to test one's chess level?

Post by Steven DuCharme » Thu Jan 18, 2018 5:04 pm

Start with mates in one,then in 2,etc...
I float like a pawn island and sting like an ignored knight :mrgreen:

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